All Blacks v Wallabies: Eddie Jones outlines key difference as attention shifts to Rugby World Cup

Wallabies coach Eddie Jones will now turn his attention to the Rugby World Cup. Photo / Photosport

Wallabies coach Eddie Jones has identified the key area where things went wrong for his side in their 23-20 loss to the All Blacks in Dunedin, but is confident it’s an area that his team can address quickly.

The Wallabies made a ferocious start to the dead rubber Bledisloe Cup test on Saturday afternoon, rumbling up the field and running out to a 14-0 lead within 10 minutes of the test kicking off.

But after a dominant opening 40 minutes, the Wallabies couldn’t keep the All Blacks from taking control of the game after the break and fell to their fourth straight loss under Jones’ watch.

Assessing his side’s performance after the test, Jones pinpointed the major difference between the two sides.

“New Zealand’s work off the ball is better than ours, and that’s an area we need to improve,” Jones said. “Our work on the ball was pretty good tonight, as it was last week, so we can improve our work off the ball.

“It’s one of the easier things to improve, but we need to develop better habits in that area and when we’re starting to get those, we’re going to be a hell of a team.”

The past two weeks have shown the Wallabies are trending in the right direction ahead of next month’s World Cup, with periods of extended success against their Kiwi counterparts; the fixture in Dunedin a step up from the glimpses the Wallabies showed in Melbourne a week ago.

There were performances to please the Wallabies’ brass, too, with Carter Gordon playing a more settled hand in his second test start, Andrew Kellaway making his mark at fullback, while the loose forward Tom Hooper and lock Nick Frost also had impressive shifts.

But while they had the All Blacks on the ropes early, the Wallabies couldn’t capitalise, and Jones credited the New Zealand side for their consistent ability to stay in a game.

“I don’t think you ever have them. In one game we’ve had them, in my whole career. All the time, you know it’s going to go down to the wire, you know it’s going to be a battle. They don’t give up and that’s the great thing about New Zealand rugby.

“As much as I hate New Zealand rugby, I’ve got a great admiration for the way they keep at it, they keep playing, they keep doing things they’re good at, they stay hard in the contest, they keep going, and for us, we don’t want to forget that feeling today.

“That’s a really important feeling we had today. We’ve got a devastated group of men in there, but if we learn from it it’s going to be the most potent lesson; it’s going to be more than a PhD from the University of Otago.”

The Australians can take solace in the improvements they have made throughout the Rugby Championship and Bledisloe Cup as they build towards a World Cup in which they fall favourably on the bracket.

They’re in a competitive pool, with the likes of Wales and Fiji likely to provide them with good tests in the group stages, but should they get to the knockouts, they are on the opposite side of the bracket to Ireland, New Zealand, France, and South Africa; the world’s top four teams all landing on the same side of the draw.

Jones was positive about the side’s outlook moving forward and although he wouldn’t say he was happy with how his side is poised given recent results, but was confident they would be contenders to bring home the World Cup.

“Four losses are four losses. Are we making progress? Sometimes the results sheet doesn’t reflect what you’re actually doing and that’s hard for people to understand,” Jones said.

“We’re definitely moving in the right direction, but we’ve got to win games. We’ve got one more game against France, then four games we need to win, then we need to win a fifth. You win that fifth, then you’re in the flick of the coin at Stade de France at 9 o’clock at night.”